“Nothing is art if it does not come from nature.”

Antoni Gaudí

Most people either love or loathe Gaudí’s designs. Some architectural critics have described his work as garish and overly busy. Gaudí was certainly not cut from the same fabric as Mies van der Rohe and other later architects who  espoused the notion that  ‘less is more’.

Personally, I admire his disregard for convention and dedication (or obsession) to finding unique solutions to the structural engineering problems posed during the process of creating his more unique buildings.

While Gaudí always aimed for perfection in his work and collaborated with the best artisans  of his time, I’m drawn to the projects he designed in the latter half of his career with their whimsical style and forms imitating nature. Gaudí supposedly said (and I’m paraphrasing here) that there were no straight lines in nature so he didn’t intend to use them in his work.

The technical difficulty and expense of building such elaborate and unusual structures is apparent since only the highest quality materials were used and every detail was meticulously executed. These buildings were made to last through the ages, unlike the poor quality construction slapped together in most world cities these days which is expected to be replaced after a period of 30 or so years.

Following are photos of four of Gaudí’s buildings in Barcelona: 1) La Sagrada Familia (Church of the Holy Family), 2) Casa Battló (my favorite), 3) La Predrera (also known as Casa Milá), and 4) Güell Palace (one of his early projects).

Gaudí-master, magician, creator of the divine!